My wife and I came to our 400 acre mountain forest Ranch in 1968 and started planting redwood and fir seedlings almost immediately as we were able to earn cost shares from a government program, ASCP  (Agriculture Conservation Program).   It was also important for us to learn how to plant trees successfully as we decided to earn our living selling Christmas trees.  During the 40 years that we have been planting and monitoring our successes and failures we actually planted 125,000 seedlings of which 60,000 became salable Christmas Trees and the rest were planted as forest trees.  In the beginning our survival rates in the forest planting were dismal, less than 5%.  We can now guarantee a 90% plus survival rates with what we have learned over the past 40 years even in the worse possible conditions.

Here are a list of the most important factors that will make a difference between success and failure in your survival rates:  Healthy Seedlings, shipping and handling of seedlings prior to planting, site conditions, type of soil, site preparation, time of planting, special conditions such as steep slopes vs. flat lands, weather conditions, site exposure, and the planting technique itself.

1)     There are several ways to purchase seedlings – bare rootstock or container stock  (I favor #16 plugs or container stock).  They can be purchased directly from the nurseries 100 at a time or in large quantities (1000 or more).  Here are some of the nurseries you can contact on the Internet.  California Division of Forestry or go to Goggle.

(2)   Site selection

a)     Soils – look at redwoods standing and growing in the area – are there ruminants of large, old growth, redwood stumps, look at the suckers or second growth trees on site.   Do they have sharp spear like tops or flat tops – sharp, pointed, tops indicates good growth – flat tops indicate not growing well.  Also, look at the bark if there are aggressive deep cracks in the bark – this indicates good growth, smooth bark not a good.  Also, alluvial sites near streams or rivers where there is some flooding are good sites.  

b)    Look at the soils – if they are heavy clay like soils that is good if gravely not so good. If there is a lot of gravel or rocks, it is not a good site for redwoods but good for Douglas Firs.

c)     Bare knolls and open meadows with South and West facing slopes indicate excessive heat and dry conditions.  If the soils are good, these sites can be planted successfully if a nursery tree is planted first like a Monterey pine or coulter pine that will grow in hot dry conditions.  Then when these trees are grown enough to create some shade the redwoods can be grown successfully in the shade of the nurse tree.  It may take 10 years or so before the shade is cdreated.  Standing water for long periods of time is not a good site selection for redwoods and especially for Douglas Fir as they need very good drainage or will not survive.

2)     Planting of trees

a)     With a hoe scrape a 2 ft square area clear of grass and plant seedling with a planting hoe, planting bar, or shovel.  If planting any a small number of trees a shovel works best as you can then loosen the soil for about a foot around where you are planting.  If you are planting bare rootstock, make sure that all of the roots are pointing down.  If the roots are too long, cut them off rather than having them turn up as you plant.

b)    On a steep slope, use a shovel and dig down about a foot upslope and deposit the dirt below the planting area so that you are forming a water bowl collecting late rains and plant the redwoods as deep into the hole as possible without covering any needles.  The idea is that the heat is what kills the tree usually not the lack of moisture.

c)     After planting the seedling, look around for sticks and debris to put around the seedling the create some shade.  This helps a lot in your survival rate.

d)    Do note use herbicides to control grass for at least the first 3 years as these do more harm than good on newly planted seedlings.

e)     The best etime to plant is in the fall after 4-5 inches of rain.  Do not plant after mid February as this too late in the season for the seedling to become established.

Good luck, and best wishes from the REDWOOD FOREST INSTITUTE.  Send and email at Chas@saber.net or call 707 459 2391 if you have any questions or need more information.

Charles Bello, president redwood forest institute

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